Sunday, November 10, 2013

BMG's Money Bin

My brother-in-law recently enrolled in the Lakewood yeshiva, and I was surprised to find out that:
1. Tuition for beis medrash is tens of thousands of dollars a year, and
2. The kollel doesn’t get paid.

So where does all the money go? As I understand it, the “faculty” give shiurim maybe once a week, and learning is mostly done in chaburas, led by one of the students (who, if he’s in beis medrash, is paying for the privilege of teaching for free). So the money isn’t spent on teachers. BMG gets grants from the state of New Jersey, there are often fundraisers for the yeshiva, and even the reduced tuition that my in-laws can afford covers room and board with enough left over to pay some utility bills. So the money isn’t going to pay for food or facilities.

Do they have less money then it would seem? Is maintaining the facilities much more expensive than I think? Is the cynical conclusion correct, and the Rosh Yeshiva has one of these?



Does anyone out there know where it all goes?

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